Start with compassion. It is not said often enough, but as a business ethics motivational speaker, business ethics and corporate social responsibility consultant and book author, if companies expect compliance, they should also be open to recognizing those who deliver such behaviors. A good sense of ethics is a balanced sense of ethics.
If I ask, “What actions should a compliance department take in encouraging ethical business practices?” it should be to recognize positivity as well as missteps; to praise and recognize when such recognition is warranted; to hold out examples of exemplary behavior as enthusiastically as in demonizing unethical activities.
Is the compliance department the ethical sentinel?
The compliance department is often viewed in dry, virtually “clinical” terms. It is not. As a business ethics speaker and business ethics consultant I have often advised those in compliance to think of themselves as ethical sentinels.
Among the many duties of compliance is clearly to determine and motivate executive leaders to practice being positive role models. That fact should never be in doubt. However, compliance should not start and stop at that point. Positive behaviors work from the top-down, that is true however, the practice of good business ethics is often a bottom-up situation.
As a business ethics consultant, I have personally been treated (and I mean with compassion) to confidential stories of lower-level R&D people refusing bribes from vendors to use their ingredients, to employees stepping up and reporting a case of sexual orientation harassment perpetrated on a co-worker by a supervisor and to a payroll clerk reporting a manager who was falsifying records. In those cases, the employees – several tiers below the executive suite placed themselves at risk.
The stories were a pleasure to hear, but there was no recognition for their higher standard of ethics. In each case as well, the news of such activity could have negatively impacted the organization. Good compliance should recognize good business ethics.
Diligence is infectious
In most any large organization, while ethical behavior is often mandated, in truth it is rarely taught at all levels or the training reinforced. An executive might be exposed to training upon hire or the warehouse crew might have a break for a half hour to hear a talk by someone from HR talk about sexual harassment, but for the most part employees are left on their own.
The results stemming from a lack of oversite can be catastrophic, and no matter the need when employees at any level act unethically, the target of such behavior invariably falls onto the compliance department.
Just as I noted above the cases of excellent ethical behaviors enhancing their organizations, as a business ethics motivational speaker and business ethics consultant, I have been privy to some horrific examples of bad ethics. An antidote to such behaviors is by compliance, working in tandem with other departments, to set ethical policy and certainly a reinforced code of ethics.
The alternative to not doing anything, to breaking ethical policy and not reinforcing policy has been shown to badly damage corporations.
Good ethics are infectious. To make them more so, I strongly endorse celebrating positive behaviors. The act of positive endorsement, of praising excellent acts of ethical behavior resonates throughout an organization.
In the beginning of this piece, I wrote about starting with compassion. To that end, what actions should a compliance department take in encouraging ethical business practices and good business ethics? To support those who succeed when no one is watching and to uplift every employee who cares about an ethical workplace should be the goal of everyone in the organization.
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